Things change
by Anzu Maki
Summary: Sakura, Ino, Hinata, and Tenten feel weak and decide to leave the village to become stronger. Takes place after time skip. SasuSaku, InoShika, HinaNaru, and TenNeji. Rated T for later chapters. HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

Sakura and everybody are now seventeen and have changed greatly from what they used to be when they were thirteen. Everybody had become stronger and were recognized as great shinobi from their village.

"talking"

'thoughts'

She was tired, dead tired she had just finished training with Tsunade and her friends and she didn't have much energy or chalkra left. She took her time and finally after a short walk from the training grounds she was home. She took off her shoes and walked up stairs to her room to take a shower. She grabbed a red tank top and a pair off black shorts with two white stripes on each side of the shorts. She made her way to the bathroom and into the hot steam filled shower.

When she came out it was pretty late so she made her way to the very comfortable bed, before she fell asleep she gazed out her window to the hospital she worked at across the street from her apartment. For the first time in a while she slept soundly and didn't have any nightmares.

She woke up an hour before she normally did and got dressed in her normal attire. She locked the door to her apartment and walked down the street to a café nearby for breakfast. For awhile she sat there relaxed and enjoying herself. She opened her eyes as she noticed three familiar chalkras coming towards her. She smiled her three best friends were coming. Ino, Tenten, Hinata, and her had become the closest of friends and trained with each other to improve.

Ino yelled to their pink haired best friend "Hey forehead!"

Sakura smiled at this "Hey pig, Hinata, Tenten!"

The three happily sat down at the same table as their friend and placed their orders as well.

Sakura noticed something was wrong with one of her friends. "Hey Tenten whats up? You seem kinda down."

She gave a weak smile and her other to friends seemed to notice that she wasn't acting like herself. "Well, I'm starting to feel useless on my team I don't feel like I've improved."

Ino decided to speak up at this point. "I know I feel the same way to, it seems like I don't improve no matter how much I train with my team."

"Yes, I feel the same way." Hinata had stopped stuttering a long time ago in front of her friends.

"You know I feel the same way as you guys." They were all starting to feel a little down. Breakfast was quiet until Sakura spoke up.

"You know I just thought of something. Why don't we ask Tsunade-sama if we can have permission to leave the village for two years to train? Just the for of us."

Ino looked up from the food she was previously pushing around the plate and smiled. "You know what Sakura that's not such a bad idea."

This was finally starting to lift everybody's mood. Tenten smiled to. "I think we should. Besides it would be fun to come back and to be at a higher level than what we would be if we stayed here."

"I also agree let's meet at the hokage's tower at seven tonight to talk to Tsunade." Hinata liked the idea of becoming stronger so people would give her a little bit more of respect.

"Okay then, its settled see you girls tonight after I get down with my shift at the hospital then!" Sakura got up and paid her bill then left to get to work a little early so she would get done sooner.

As Sakura walked through the glass doors of the office she noticed that there wasn't to many people. She walked up to the secretary and got the information on the patients she would be treating that day. They were all simple cases that she could handle easily.

About two hours later she had finished her first round of patients that needed to be treated and headed to her office to relax and make a mental list of what she would need to take. When she thought about it there was a lot but luckily she knew a shrinking jutsu so she would be able to fit everything into one bag.

She smiled at that and was glad that Tenten had showed them and they were able to improve it so the items would shrink more. Of course Tenten was happy because it meant she could fit more weapons in her scrolls to eliminate her enemies with. She had just about every weapon imaginable too.

Ino would be happy because it meant she would be able to fit all of her clothes and accessories not to mention a few other things, and still have room for all the things she would buy on the journey.

Hinata wouldn't bring as much as Ino but still a decent amount. She would probably include her medic-nin things like Sakura and Ino but probably some of her books as well.

Sakura started to gather some medical supplies from her office and started to shrink them so they would easier to travel with. As soon as she was satisfied with how much she had she carefully put all the supplies into a small bad that would fit easily in her bag. She went over to her couch in her office and took a short nap to regain the chalkra she used quicker.

She woke up forty-five minutes later and stretched out. She walked back to her desk and sat there before deciding to see if Tsunade had anything for her to do.

She walked up to her door and knocked twice before hearing the reply.

She slowly opened the door and saw how bored her sensei was. "Ah, Sakura you don't have any more patients?" She shook her head. "No, I came here looking to see if there was any new patients but I'm guessing not."

"Well, since work is slow today why don't you go and train for a little bit." Sakura nodded her head and closed her sensei's door and walked down the hall to her office to get her things and left to go train before heading back to her house to rest and pack.

When she got to the training grounds she noticed that Ino, Tenten, and Hinata were all here as well.

"Hey guys! I guess you didn't have much to do either." Ino looked at her with a bored expression. "Nope. We finished it within a few hours."

Tenten looked at Sakura. "Not busy at the hospital today?"

She shook her head. "I just had a few patients today so Tsunade let me go early."

Hinata stood up and brushed the dirt off her clothes. "Why don't we talk to Tsunade now so we can get ready to leave?"

The other three got off the ground from their sitting positions and chorused "Hai."

They walked through the city and into the hospital to talk to Tsunade. Sakura went up and knocked on the door. A "Come in" was heard. They opened the door and walked into the room.

"Ah, girls sit down, what do you need?"

They sat down and began telling Tsunade about their conversation earlier and how they wanted permission to leave the village for two years to train and become stronger for themselves and the village.

She sat there and watched the girls tell her everything. 'They truly want to become stronger and I believe they are doing it for the right reasons.'

"Girls after what you have just told me and giving it thought I will let you go but we will call it a mission." They girls were happy but used their self-control to keep from jumping up and down knowing that she wasn't done yet.

"If you girls find out any information that would be useful to Konoha then send a message through my messenger bird it will locate you by your chalkra and it will come once a week also give me updates on your training and how everybody is doing."

Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and Hinata knew she was done and jumped up and gave Tsunade a hug and continually yelling "Thank you!" After a few minutes they looked at Tsunade.

"Tsunade-sama we would like to leave tonight if it is okay with you."

"Yes Hinata and I would like to see you off. Meet me at the gates at dusk and don't tell them anything except it's a mission and don't tell them how long you will be gone for."

"Hai, we'll see you in a few hours then."

With that the girls left and went to Hinata's to help her pack. When they entered the main courtyard of the Hyuuga complex they immediately noticed her father and her sister Hanabi sparring and Hanabi wasn't holding up to well. Seconds later her father ended the match and turned to face his eldest daughter.

"Hinata you're back early." The girls noticed that he wanted to know why.

"Hai, Tsunade-sama has given me and my friends here a mission and they came along with me."

Her father nodded his head and turned back to his youngest daughter.

Hinata led her friends through the twists and turns of the Hyuuga house and came to her room. Tenten and Ino sat on her bed while Sakura was helping her shrink everything she was going to need and other things that might come in handy.

Tenten stared at the ceiling for a while before speaking up breaking the silence in the room.

"Hey do you know when the boys are getting back from their mission?"

Ino sat up and started to think. "Shikamaru said something about they were going to be here today at the latest."

"Hopefully they get back before we leave I want to say good bye to Naruto-kun."

After Sakura finished shrinking Hinata's last item she stood up and started to stretch. "Yeah I want to say good bye to the boys to."

"Okay let's go to Tenten's to pack up her things."

They got up and quickly made their way to Tenten's apartment and helped her pack everything, most of which were weapons. Every nook and cranny that Sakura, Ino and Hinata looked there was some type of a weapon or something that could be used as a weapon.

Ino was looking through Tenten's closet and saw something that caught her interest and pulled it out. Ino screamed bloody murder and dropped the item. Sakura and Tenten ran into the room ready to attack anyone who wasn't welcomed. Tenten and Sakura stood there for a second and then dropped on the floor laughing hysterically clutching their sides.

Ino was still in shock but then she started to get angry. "Why in the world do you keep a fake skeleton covered in fake blood in your closet?"

Sakura rolled on to her side and used the bed to support herself and stood up. "Ino you should've seen your face!" She couldn't help her self any more and started to laugh again.

"Ino it's in there because I didn't have any where else to put it after Halloween."

After a few seconds Ino started to laugh to after seeing Tenten and Sakura on the floor laughing and rolling around on the floor like a bunch of idiots.

Meanwhile Hinata had just finished packing some of Tenten's weapons and decided to see what was so funny. She walked in the room and the first thing she saw was the fake skeleton with blood on it and fainted.

Sakura had stopped to take a breath when she heard a 'thump'. She turned around and saw Hinata on the ground. She immediately ran over to her unconscious friend and made sure she was all right.

The other two noticed this and ran to their friends aid as well. "Sakura is she okay!!" "Yeah Ino, she just fainted and probably because of that." She pointed into the direction of the skeleton. She turned her attention back to Hinata and saw she was regaining consciousness.

Hinata sat up. "Ugh….what happened?"

Tenten started to rub the back of her head as she explained everything to her best friend. After Tenten was done explaining Hinata started to crack up like her friends had earlier. Within a matter of milliseconds they were all laughing hysterically.

When they finally calmed down Ino stood up. "Ugh my head hurts. Tenten do you have any aspirin?"

She nodded and walked to her medicine cabinet and handed everybody two caplets.

"Okay let's go to Ino's house then mine because mine's across the street from the hospital." They nodded their heads and took off.

"Okay we're here." Ino opened her bag and looked for her key. For the next few minutes she looked in her bag but wasn't having any luck finding her key.

"Ugh! Where could the stupid key have gone?!" Ino finally got frustrated enough and dumped the contents out of her bag and on to the ground at her feet. After a few more minutes she dropped on to the ground on her knees.

"Ino could you have put the key into your pocket by any chance?" Ino looked at Hinata and dug into her pockets.

"Hehe, I guess I did put it in my pocket."

She stood up and unlocked the door to her house and then ran straight upstairs to her room to start packing. Tenten, Hinata, and Sakura immediately started to shrink all the clothes that Ino was throwing out of her closet.

Tenten was getting tired of this. "Ino how many more pairs of clothes do you need?"

Ino walked out of the closet. "This is the last pair of clothes then we can shrink any thing else you think we'll need and then we can go to Sakura's to help her pack and rest before we meet up with Tsunade at the gates."

The girls nodded and finished shrinking the remaining clothes. Sakura stood up and walked to the doorway. "Since we're almost done I'll shrink some other things of Ino's that will come in handy at some point."

The girls nodded and soon finished and met up with Sakura in the living room. Hinata was the last to walk in. "Okay let's head over to Sakura's to help her pack and then rest."

The girls nodded and left to finish packing. When they got to Sakura's they only needed to pack a few items because she had already packed up all the medical stuff they would probably need and a few other things.

It only took them ten minutes to finish packing. Sakura stood up and walked to her bedroom and lay down on her bed to rest up. Hinata had made herself comfortable and slept on the couch. Tenten and Ino each slept on a chair on either side of the couch.

They woke up about two hours before they were to meet Tsunade and decide to change their outfits and hair so they wouldn't be recognized as Konohoa shinobi.

Hinata had dyed her hair a dark chocolate brown color and put in blue contacts. She now wore a lilac tank top under a long sleeved gray shirt that hung off her shoulders and wore black capri's.

Tenten dyed her hair a medium blond and put it into a single high ponytail. She now wore a dark green shirt similar to what she had before the time-skip with a black and gold dragon on it and black pants.

Ino dyed her hair a light brown color and cut her hair to her shoulder blades. She also put in contacts that were a pale purple so her eyes looked a purplish, bluish color. She now wore a sky blue sleeveless shirt with a black fish net shirt under it and a black skirt.

Sakura dyed her hair black and put in darker green colored contacts so her eyes were between their natural sea foam green color and an emerald color. She now wore a dark blue sleeveless shirt with white on it. She also wore a black skirt with short black shorts under it and light blue arm warmers that started e few inches below her shoulders and covered half of her hands. (A/N It has a top band to keep them on but they don't have a bottom band.)

They girls grabbed their bags and set off to meet Tsunade at the gates. They took their time and gave their village a look because they wouldn't see it for two more years.

"Ah girls there you are." They smiled at Tsunade and walked over to say good bye to her and Shizune.

"Tsunade-sama we're going to miss you but we promise to write when we can."

"Good bye girls and if anyone asks I'll say you're on a mission."

The girls gave a final wave and set off and ran in the forest to their first destination. The land of waves to begin their training.

Mean while in another part of the forest.

"Teme I can't believe you're actually coming back to the village without us forcing you to."

"Shut up dope. And like I said before I've already killed Itachi so I might as well."

"So I bet you missed Sakura-chan too." Neji smirked and Shikamaru muttered "Troublesome."

"No dope." But force once Naruto had been right he did miss the village and mostly Sakura and he couldn't wait to see her again.

They continued their way through the forest and the village started to come into view.

'Home at last'


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry for the late update! I had to go to Michigan to visit family for the past few days. And thanks to everyone who put my story on their alerts and favorites lists!

The girls ran through the trees for hours until they were half way to their destination. Sakura looked at each of her friends. Ino was starting to get tired and started to complain. Hinata was very tired and looked like if they went too much longer she would pass out. Then she turned her head to Tenten. The weapons mistress also looked like she was tired too.

"Okay you guys theirs supposed to be a clearing up a head. We'll stop there and rest until later tomorrow morning." Her friends nodded their heads in agreement and were glad they would soon be resting.

A few moments later they had reached their destination and had started setting up camp. Hinata went to the nearby stream to get water, Tenten went to get fish, Ino went into the woods gathering firewood, and Sakura set up the tents.

"Hey forehead, I got the firewood."

"Kay pig put it over there."

Ino sat the firewood down by a tree and went to help out Tenten.

A half hour later they had eaten and were sitting by the fire discussing their plans.

"After we are done with the land of waves where do we want to go?"

Hinata walked back over to the fire after she had set up her bedroll. "Well we could go to the earth country for a few months."

"Okay now that we know where we're going we should probably change our names and take off our leaf head bands."

"Oh should my name be Katsumi or Hana? Oh or Kaori?"

"I don't know Ino. Do you think Ayame or Misaki would be a good name for me?" Sakura started tapping her finger on her chin to think.

"Well I think I'll go with Mai or Hiroko. What do you think Hinata?" Tenten turned to Hinata who was thinking about it.

"Well I would go with Hiroko."

"Thanks Hinata I'll go with Hiroko. By the way what names were you thinking about?"

"Well I thought about Kei or Nao. But I think I'll go with Kei."

Teten smiled at her friend. "Good choice Hinata the name suits you well to."

"Well Sakura I think I've narrowed down my choices. I'm going with either Katsumi or Kaori." She turned to Hinata and Tenten.

"Which do you like better Katsumi or Kaori?"

"Go with Kaori I like it better."

"I agree with Tenten, I mean Hiroko."

"Okay so I'm Kaori. Forehead, have you chosen your name yet?"

"Yeah Kaori, I'm Misaki."

"Okay now that that's settled who's taking what watch?"

"I'll take first watch."

"I'll take second."

"I'll take third."

"And I get the last."

"Okay so Kaori is first then Misaki, then Kei, then me. Our shifts are each two hours long. See you guys in the morning."

Every one but Ino headed to the tents to get some rest. She scouted around the campsite every once in a while and when she wasn't she was sitting in a tree or by the fire.

Her shift was over and she went and woke up Sakura for her shift. She did a similar routine to Kaori's and often gazed at the stars wondering what her friends were doing right now.

With the boys

"Are we there yet?"

"No dope."

"Sasuke quit being a teme!"

Shikamaru sighed. "Quit being troublesome Naruto."

A few minutes later.

"Are we there yet!?"

"No dope."

"Troublesome."

"What'd you call me Shikamaru?!!"

"I said you're troublesome."

"I am not!"

"Naruto you are right now." Naruto looked over to Neji and decided to be quiet for a while. (A/N We all know that won't last long.)

Two minutes later

"I'm hungry I want ramen!"

"Shut up dope."

"Troublesome let's stop here for a short break. Is that okay with you Neji?"

"Hn"

"I'll take that as a yes."

Naruto took off in search for firewood to cook his precious ramen on. While he went looking for some you could her him singing

"Ramen ramen ramen, yummy yummy ramen!"

The others sweat dropped at his childish tack ticks.

For a few minutes everything went quiet. Neji and Sasuke were leaning against trees and Shikamaru was sleeping. Little did Shikamaru know he was in for a rude awakening call.

Naruto by know was just humming the song he made up when he saw Shikamaru sleeping. Now was the perfect chance for his revenge of being called troublesome.

Naruto being the stealthy ninja that he is crept from tree to tree when he got close enough he sat down the firewood he was holding and climbed the tree that Shikamaru was under.

He hung upside down from the lowest branch and yelled his song in his ears.

Shikamaru sat up quickly and turned to Naruto with a very annoyed and angry face.

"Uh oh!" Naruto took off into the woods with Shikamaru on his heels. A few minutes later Shikamaru came back to camp with an unconscious Naruto tied up and gagged. Neji and Sasuke smirked and gave a small chuckle.

"Let's get back to the village before the troublesome idiot wakes up." The other two nodded and they started back to their homes.

Two hours later in Tsunade's office

Tsunade was amused at the site in front of her. "Ah, you're back and you managed to drag the Uchiha back as well."

"Hn, I came back on my own."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Why and for how long?"

"Nothing else to do I've already killed my brother and Orochimaru so I might as well stay."

"Very well then since you killed two S-class criminals and came back willingly I'll shorten your sentence. You won't be allowed to go on missions for eight months in less Neji, Shikamaru, and Naruto are with you and you'll be on probation for a year. Speaking of which were is Naruto?"

Shikamaru sighed. "He was to troublesome so I knocked him out and tied him up." He motioned over to the door were they had dropped him by and Tsunade started to laugh at the site.

He looked like a rope caterpillar with a big bow on his back and was drooling while mumbling something along the lines of dancing ramen. Tsunade dropped to the floor laughing while the others gave a few chuckles at their comrade.

Shizune ran in to the room thinking Tsunade was either drunk or was being attacked. When she slammed the door open she had hit Naruto in the head hard enough to wake him up from his fantasies.

She looked at Tsunade who was laughing and pointing at something near her. She followed Tsunade's direction of where she was pointing and started laughing as well.

Naruto started to stir at all the noise and woke up with a huge headache and a bunch of confusion.

"Whaa?"

Tsunade and Shizune were now recovering from their laughing fits and stood up. Naruto's vision and some of his confusion were finally starting to clear up. He tried to use his hands to help him get up but then realized he couldn't. He panicked and started flopping around the room like a fish out of water crying anime tears and yelling.

"AHHH!!!! GET IT OFF OF ME GET IT OFF!!!!!!!" Everyone in the room sweat dropped at his stupidity.

"AHH!!!! IT'S TRYING TO EAT ME!! AHHHH!!!!"

Shikamaru sighed. "You're too troublesome." Naruto was to busy panicking to hear him and continued screaming.

Ten minutes later

They decided they had to let him out of the rope cocoon and he was now sitting in a chair in front of Tsunade's desk along with Neji, Shikamaru, and Sasuke. They started giving her mission details and she had Sasuke tell her what he had been doing since he had killed Orochimaru.

After they had finished their discussions the room got quiet, too quiet. Everyone looked over to Naruto.

Shizune decided to speak up. "What are you thinking about Naruto?"

"Well I was wondering where are the girls they're normally here to see if we made it back okay."

Neji spoke next. "Yeah, normally by now Tenten has come and asked me if we were training the next day."

Shikamaru sighed. "I was also wondering why Ino wasn't here being troublesome."

Tsunade handed some papers to Shizune. "I gave the girls a long term mission and they left just a few hours before you guys got here. They waited for a while and couldn't wait any longer so they left."

All the boys but Naruto seemed okay with the answer they received.

"But why couldn't you make them stay so I could say good bye to Hinata-chan?!"

"Like I said Naruto they waited as long as they could and had to leave."

For the next fifteen minutes Naruto complained and received a bump on his head from everyone else in the room for being annoying and not shutting up.

With the girls

It was finally morning and they were starting to pick up camp and erase all signs that they were there. Hinata and Tenten went to the stream and collected water to be boiled for drinking water. Ino and Sakura took down the tents and started to make sure everything was packed.

Within minutes they were on their way to the land of waves.

Later that day

"Hey Misaki do you think it would be okay to stop and train for a little bit?"

"Yeah Hiroko this looks like a good spot and I think we're a little over do for some training anyways."

With that the girls started to spar and train. Just then Sakura gave out a yell of pain and started to clutch her sides. Her vision started to blur and she felt like she was spinning. The last thing that she saw was her friends running to her and yelling.

"Misaki! What's wrong?!" Tenten looked up to Ino because she was a medic.

"Hiroko she passed out and I have no clue why. I mean she was fine and then she clutched her sides and fell unconscious."

Before Tenten could answer Hinata did the same as Sakura and passed out. She looked over in Ino's direction before passing out as well.

When Sakura woke up she noticed she was no longer in the forest training with her friends but was now in a pale blue room and her friends were sleeping on beds in the same room. She heard footsteps and took out a kunai as self-defense.

A boy their age walked into the room and she put her kunai back.

"Ah you're awake my friends and I went out into the forest to train and found you and your friends unconscious so we brought you back here so my uncle could make sure you guys were alright. By the way my name is Katsuo."

She looked at Katsuo. He was tall and had chestnut brown hair. She smiled. "My name is Misaki and my friends are Kaori, Hiroko, and Kei." She pointed to each as she said their names.

"Well while we wait for your friends to wake up and for mine to get here why don't we talk for a while." She smiled and nodded her head. They talked about why she and her friends were out there and about themselves.

About an hour and a half later Hinata started to wake up. "Kei you finally woke up!" She jumped off the bed and ran to hug her friend.

Soon every one else woke up and Katsuo's friends had came.

Ino was a little confused and asked a few questions. "How'd we get here and who are you?"

"We'll explain everything once me uncle gets here." She nodded her head and sat down. A few minutes later Katsuo's uncle walked in and they all sat down at a circular table in the room.

"My name is Hiroki and I'm Katsuo's uncle."

Sakura spoke next. "My name is Matsuki and these are my friends Kaori, Hiroko, and Kei."

Katsuo spoke. "My name is Katsuo if you didn't already know and these are my friends Kenji, Ryo, and Takeo."

After the girls had said how they had got there Hiroki spoke. "So you girls are traveling to get stronger." They nodded there heads.

"When I checked to make sure that you girls were alright I noticed you girls were clutching your sides do you still feel any pain?"

Tenten spoke. "Yeah on my lower back." The other three replied. "Us too."

They lifted the backs of their shirts and gasped. "That wasn't there earlier!"

Sakura had a pink cherry blossom flower surrounded by fire, Ino had a white lily surrounded by wind, Hinata had a lilac surrounded by water, and Tenten had a magnolia surrounded by earth.

Hiroki studied the marks on their backs. "Ah it's a good thing the boys found you, you have the markings of the elements. If you would like to you girls can travel and train with the boys and I."

Ino spoke up first. "That sounds good to me what about you girls?"

"I'm okay with it. What about you guys Hiroko and Kei?"

"Sounds good to us!"

"Okay then we'll spend a few weeks here and then we'll move on to a different country." The boys and girls nodded. "Rest up we'll start training tomorrow."

With that the boys and Hiroki turned to leave but before they did Katsuo turned to the girls. "Our room is the one next to you girls if you need anything."

They left and the girls got ready for bed because they knew tomorrow was going to be a long day.


	3. Chapter 3

Hey everybody thanks for the reviews and putting my story on your alert and favorites lists! And last time I forgot to write the meanings of everybody's names so here they are!

(Sakura) Misaki- beautiful bloom

(Ino) Kaori- fragrance

(Tenten) Hiroko- generous child

(Hinata) Kei- respectful

Katsuo- victorious child

Kenji- intelligent ruler

Ryo- excellent

Takeo- warrior

Hiroki- abundant joy/strength

Also (reviewer's name) gave me an idea and I'm making it a pole!

Do you guys want the stories to have love triangles? YES or NO? PLEASE REVIEW AND VOTE!!!! Or I'll tell the Akatsuki you have a demon sealed in you. Muahahahahahaha!!!!! (A/N sorry I blame the sugar!)

ON TO THE STORY!!!

And I don't own naruto.

It was about five thirty when Sakura woke up. She got out of bed and dragged herself into the bathroom for a hot steamy shower.

'_I wonder if the boys have found out if we left?'_ _'Well I need to hurry up so if the others aren't up I can wake them up and give them time to get ready for training.'_

At the thought of training Sakura thought about Katsuo and what happened yesterday. Snapping out of her thoughts she turned the shower off and grabbed the towel nearby and started to dry herself off.

She dressed and walked out of the bathroom. She passed Hinata who walked into the bathroom and did a similar routine to her previous one. She looked at the clock.

'_I was only in the bathroom for twelve minutes? It usually takes longer and today seemed like it took a lot more time then usual too.'_

She walked over to the window and looked outside at the waves crashing on the nearby rocks and shore. She relaxed more now that she was finally going to become stronger and her friends were going to be there every step of the way with her.

She stood up and woke up Ino and Tenten with the help of Hinata who had just came out of the bathroom.

"Whaa? Is it already time to get up fore head?" Ino started to pull the covers off of her head and groggily sat up.

Hinata on the other hand was having trouble waking up Tenten who kept asking for five minutes of sleep.

Ino was finally starting to wake up completely and started running yelling "I call bathroom first Hiroko!"

Tenten immediately shot up and ran to the door but Ino made it in a few seconds ahead of the weapons mistress.

"Ugh! I'll get the bathroom before you next time Kaori! Mark my words I will!"

Ino replied back in a singsong voice. "No you won't Hiroko!"

Hinata and Sakura laughed at their other best friends and how childish they could be.

Sakura smiled "This is going to be a long day."

Hinata sighed "I have a feeling it will be too Misaki."

After a few minutes Hinata and Sakura had gotten bored and told Tenten they were going down stairs and to meet them there.

As soon as they closed the door they could hear the faint yells of Tenten and Ino.

"Kaori hurry up! I have to take a shower and get ready too! Not to mention we start training today!"

Ino yelled back in frustration. "I just got in the shower and if you keep yelling at me I'll stay in here longer Hiroko!"

Sakura sighed. "Those two will never change, will they Kei?"

Hinata shook her head. "No Misaki I don't think they will."

As the two turned the turned the corner to go down the stairs they saw Katsuo and Ryo walking down the stairs as well. Before anyone could say anything Tenten could be heard yelling.

"Finally Kaori! You take to long."

"Well you kept yelling at me even though I warned you that if did I would take longer." Ino replied yet again in a singsong voice.

Just as Katsuo was about to speak they heard Takeo and Kenji yelling at each other.

"Kenji you bastard you took all the hot water!"

"Well Takeo that's what you get for flipping my mattress while I was asleep!"

The four teenagers on the steps all began to laugh at their friends and how much they are alike.

Sakura was the first to recover from her laughing fit and turned to Katsuo. "Well how has your morning been so far?"

"Okay but we'll tell you girls the details after we get to the kitchen.

When the four reached the kitchen Sakura sat down at the table with Katsuo while Hinata and Ryo started cooking breakfast.

Katsuo took a breath and started to tell about their morning.

"Well I got up shortly after five and went into the bathroom and got ready. When I got out Ryo was awake and went in the bathroom to get ready as well. When he got out we started talking and thinking of ways to wake up Kenji and Takeo. We ended up waking up Kenji and told him to wake up Takeo and get ready because we were coming down for breakfast and shortly after we were training."

Katsuo stopped and tool a few sips of the tea that Hinata had just put on the table for them. Ryo then told the rest.

"As we were about to leave Kenji told us to stay and watch him wake up Takeo. So we stood by the door while he quietly crept over to Takeo's bed and flipped him onto the ground and than ran to the bathroom yelling." "Ha ha Takeo I get the bathroom before you once again!"

They laughed and then Hinata and Sakura shared their story as well. After that they started comparing how much alike their friends actually were. By the time they had finished comparing more shouts could be heard from the floor above them.

"Kaori get back here!"

"Not in this lifetime Hiroko!"

Sakura and Hinata sweat dropped.

"Kenji I'll kill you!"

"Only if you can catch me Takeo!"

Katsuo and Ryo sweat dropped at their friend's behavior.

The next thing that was heard was a loud _CRASH_ !

Everything went silent. Then yelling was heard again. An angry voice filled with venom was heard first. "KENJI! YOU'LL PAY FOR RUNNING INTO ME!"

Sakura sighed. "That's obviously Kaori."

Then a girlish scream was heard. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Katsuo sighed. "And that's Kenji."

Through out the whole ordeal maniac like laughing could be heard.

Ryo and Hinata sighed. "And that's Hiroko/Takeo laughing."

In a few more minutes Kenji came down stairs with a black eye and a happy Ino came skipping in behind him.

"Hey Kaori there's some tea on the table for you."

"Thanks!"

Hinata stood up. "Here's some ice Kenji for your eye."

Kenji took the ice and muttered a quick "thanks."

Then Tenten and Takeo came in talking about what they thought training would be like.

Hinata and Ryo sat the food on the table and within seconds every one was eating.

Ino was the first to speak up. "Hey where's Hiroki?"

Takeo was the first to reply. "Probably outside meditating or training."

The back porch door opened and a calm Hiroki walked in.

"Everyone we start training in an hour."

"Hai."

They returned to their food and soon were cleaning up the remains of breakfast.

In Konoha with the boys

Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Neji were waiting at training grounds two for their blond ramen obsessed friend to arrive so they could start training.

"Troublesome, he normally doesn't take this long to get here."

Two hn's where heard. Neji and Sasuke were leaning against some trees and Shikamaru was laying on the ground cloud gazing.

Ten minutes later and Naruto was nowhere to be seen or heard, now they were really starting to get pissed.

Sasuke stood up from his leaning position. "Let's go find the dope."

The other two stood up and followed him. They checked Ichiraku's first but surprisingly Naruto wasn't there. Next they checked his apartment and wasn't there either. They kept looking for him for a half hour and they finally gave up.

As they were walking back to the training grounds they could hear Tsunade yelling at some one telling them they couldn't go somewhere.

"I bet that's the dope."

"Troublesome."

With that the trio sped off to the Hokage's tower knowing that's where they would find Naruto. They walked into the tower seeing a distressed Shizune rubbing her temples.

"He's in the Tsunade's office."

They nodded and walked to her office just in time to see Tsunade punch Naruto.

"Ah! Tsunade baa-chan that hurt!"

"Troublesome what are you doing here?"

Tsunade sighed and spoke before he could. "He came in asking when the girls would be back and I told him it would be a while and then he demanded to know when and I told him no."

Naruto stood up. "Please tell me then I'll leave."

She sighed. "Only if you promise not to bug me about how long or ask to go visit them or bring them back."

"I promise I won't!" He was now on his hands and knees begging.

"Okay, their mission will take two years to complete."

"WHAT?! I HAVE TO GO SEE HINATA-CHAN! AHHHH! WHERE IS SHE BAA-CHAN?!"

By now he was running around the room yelling historically and pulling at his hair.

Sasuke was getting annoyed now and grabbed Naruto by the collar of his shirt and threw him out of the open window.

Tsunade sighed, "thank you Sasuke if you hadn't have done that I think we might have killed him."

"Hn."

Shikamaru had walked over to the window after Naruto had been thrown out of it and watched him as he landed on his head and immediately jumped up and began yelling.

"I'M COMIN HINATA!"

"He's too troublesome."

"I don't know why my cousin likes that baka."

With the girls

"Achoo!"

"Hey Kei you okay?"

"Yeah Hiroko, but I think some one was talking about me."

"Well maybe it's Ryo."

Hinata blushed. "I don't know."

With the boys

"Naruto you promised me you wouldn't do anything like this." Shizune walked in and saw a frustrated Tsunade.

"Then when can I see her?!" Naruto started crying anime tears. Everyone in the room sweat dropped.

Tonton walked in and to Shizune. She picked up the pig and sat in a chair by a window. Naruto had curled into a fetal position and started rocking back and forth mumbling something along the lines of.

"I want Hinata-chan." Or "Two years that's too long I want to hug her now."

Everyone's sweat drops grew and Shikamaru sighed. Just then Tsunade's messenger hawk rested on the window sill and let out a call. (A/N didn't know what to call it I thought about a screech but they don't screech so I don't know so what ever.)

Tsunade stood up and walked over to the bird and untied the message from the girls. The boys were confused but Shizune's face lit up. She jumped up with Tonton in her arms and ran over to read the message with Tsunade.

_Dear Tsunade and Shizune,_

_We are writing to tell you we made it fine to the land of waves and we have met some other ninja who are willing to help us train. Yes they are nice and won't harm us other wise we'll kick them into next year. And by now you are probably wondering who will be helping us train. We met up with four boys in the forest who were on their way to train with one of their uncle's and wanted to help us train so we agreed. And the girls and I have been thinking and we thought about dropping in for a visit in a few months._

_Sincerely,_

_The girls_

_P.S. Hinata says to tell Naruto that she is fine and when we decide to drop by she'll treat him to ramen so he'll quit panicking and leave you alone._

Tsunade chuckled and told Naruto about what Hinata said and he imedaintly quit panicking and started to babble about he and Hinata could do when she got back. Everyone else sweat dropped at his ability to change back to himself so quickly.

I know this chapter was shorter than the others (word wise) but I've got writer's block! UGH! I hate it.

Anyways I need some I ideas readers. I don't care if you come up with one and you think it's stupid, cuz I'll probably like it!

Also I want to try to update every day or every other day!

Ta ta for now!

-pinkcherryblossom225


	4. Chapter 4

Hey sorry it took so long for me to update but to make it up I'm making the next chapter longer than what I was going to!(Don't know how much longer though.) Also I like the idea that PinkxxxReaper suggested. So instead of there being love triangles the boys are going to be like very overprotective older brothers. And thank you to all my reviewers!

Me: Hey everybody! Kakashi is going to be doing the disclaimer today! The question is how late is he going to be today?

Two hours later

Kakashi: Yo!

Naruto: Your late again sensei!

Me: Hey at least he's here and doing the disclaimer!

Naruto and I start yelling at each other in the background.

Kakashi sweat drops: Anyways pinkcherryblossom225 doesn't own Naruto or any of the characters except the OC's.

With the girls

"Come on Kaori we'll be late for training unless you hurry up!" Tenten yelled at Ino who was fixing her hair and outfit.

"Well I have to look good even if I'm training besides I'm done now Hiroko." She looked one last time in the mirror and smiled.

Tenten sighed "Come on Misaki and Kei are already at the training grounds with everyone else waiting for us!"

Ino scrunched up her face in confusion. "When'd they leave?"

"About ten minutes ago when they got tired of waiting for you so I had to stay here and make sure you didn't take to long in there."

"Oh! Well let's go then!" She grabbed Tenten's arm and ran all the way to the training grounds.

Sakura and Hinata had been sitting under a tree talking when they noticed a giant dust cloud coming right at them. They jumped up to the nearest branch to escape from being run into. Katsuo and Ryo had been standing on a branch in the tree next to them watching the approaching dust cloud.

When Ino finally realized that her friends had jumped out of the way she tried to slow down to avoid running into the tree. She finally managed to steer clear of it but instead ran straight into Takeo and Kenji who were still fighting about the incident earlier that morning and didn't realize that Ino and Tenten were going to run into them until they were about two meters away.

"AHHHHH!"

_**CRASH!**_

The four ninja were now in a pile and two of them thought they saw little birds chirping and flying around their heads.

Hiroki walked up to the training grounds just in time to see the ninja crash into each other.

A few minutes later after they snapped out of their daze Ino and Kenji started to fight.

"Why'd you run into me?!"

"Why didn't you get out of the way?!"

"Because how was I supposed to know that you were barreling this way?!"

As they continued fighting Takeo held out a hand and helped Tenten up.

Tenten sighed. "They are to much like one another I swear for all we know they could be siblings."

Takeo chuckled. "Your right they probably could be."

Hiroki walked over to them while Sakura, Hinata, Katsuo, and Ryo jumped out of the trees and walked over to their friends.

Sakura walked over to Tenten. "Hey you all right Hiroko?"

"Yeah I'll be fine Misaki once those two quit fighting."

Sakura smirked. "I have a plan."

Tenten looked over to her friend. "Spill."

"Ok but we'll need Katsuo and Takeo's help."

Tenten walked over to the boys and asked if they wanted to help stop Ino and Kenji's bickering and they happily agreed. They walked over and discussed the plan with Sakura and they took their spots.

Hinata, Ryo, and Hiroki stood several meters away and watched. Sakura and Tenten went and grabbed Ino and Katsuo and and Takeo went and grabbed Kenji.

They sat their friends down and threatened to tell everyone about their most embarrassing moment if they didn't keep quiet.

When everyone had gotten quiet Hiroki, Hinata, and Ryo walked up to everybody else to begin training.

Hiroki spoke up. "Okay to warm up all of you must run this trail ten times before we begin." He points to a trail that leads deep into the forest.

An hour later 

Ino and Kenji were the last to finish the warm up while Tenten and Takeo had finished it first.

Hiroki stood up from under a tree from where he was meditating. "Now we will spar. Hiroko and Takeo you'll go first."

They nodded and took their positions as the others sat under the shade of some trees a safe distance away.

With the boys 

After they had left the Hokage's tower they made their way through the busy streets of Konoha to the training grounds. Shikamaru had lain down under a tall oak watching the clouds thinking of Ino.

Naruto had sat down close to Shikamaru and was eating the ramen he had brought with him and thinking of Hinata.

Neji and Sasuke were sparring. After they had finished their spar Sasuke glanced over to were Naruto was and saw the ramen obsessed blond asleep.

"Hey Neji how'd you think we should wake him up?"

"Hm, we could kick him into over to the river over there or we could use him as target practice."

Sasuke thought for a minute. "Target practice would be more practical and it's still considered training."

Neji smirked. They took out their kunai and threw them at the oblivious blond and watched amusingly as he jumped up and began yelling.

"AHHHH!!!! ENEMY NINJA ARE ATACKING ME!!! AHHHH!!!!"

"Dope."

Naruto stood up with his jaw touching the ground. "Sasuke you just stand there while I'm being attacked?!"

"You weren't attacked Naruto." Naruto looked over to Shikamaru.

"If I wasn't attacked then who threw these at me?" He scratched the back of his head while the others sweat dropped.

Finally Naruto found out who threw the kunai at him. "Sasuke and Neji threw these at me?!"

He picked up some of his kunai with a mischievous glint in his eyes. He threw them at Shikamaru put a 'poof' sound was heard.

"Guys that's not fair!"

"Later dope."

With the girls 

Hiroki stood up. "Okay everyone that's enough training for today."

They let out a sigh of relief and collapsed into piles on the ground.

"Ugh, my hair has mud, leaves, and a bunch of other stuff in it!"

Sakura sighed. "Kaori stuff like that happens when you train."

"It never did when I trained with my team though."

Tenten sat up. "That's because you had lazy ass and the bottomless pit as teammates."

They got up and headed back to the house they were currently staying at and had dinner. It had been a long day and after everyone had took a shower they met in the living room to discuss where they would go to next.

Sakura, Katsuo, and Ino sat on the couch while the others sat on the floor or on chairs. Hiroki took out a map of the hidden villages and spread it out on the coffee table in front of him.

"We'll stay here in the land of waves for two months to train for Kei's and Ryo's element. Then we'll move on to the land of earth where Hiroko and Takeo's elements are the strongest."

Ino was sitting there the entire time brushing her hair and listening to parts of the conversation. Kenji sat in one of the chairs with his feet over the back of it and in an upside down position only listening to parts of the conversation like Ino while the others listened carefully so they knew what traveling conditions and such were going to be.

"After that we'll go to the land of wind where Kaori and Kenji's elements are the strongest and finish with the land of fire where Misaki and Katsuo's elements are the strongest. And from what you girls told me you guys actually lived in the land of fire so we won't need a map to find the small village that we'll train in."

Ino had finished brushing her hair and was now bored out of her mind. 'Hm, what can I do that won't be so boring? I know!' She smiled mischievously. She picked up the pillow next to her and threw it in Tenten's direction. But Tenten saw it coming and ducked. Instead it hit Kenji in the face.

"AHHHH!" He fell out of the chair and landed flat on his face. He picked up the pillow and had a similar smile to Ino's.

"Who threw this?"

No one stood up or said anything then Hinata stood up with a pillow in her hands. "Pillow fight!" (A/N I know that she normally doesn't do anything like that but I decided that she decided to have a little fun.)

As soon as those sacred words were spoken there was a mass of chaos. They even had managed to get Hiroki to get in the fun as well.

Sakura and Ino hid behind the couch with their ammo with a quick nod they stood up. Ino yelled "fire!"

With that she and Sakura threw pillows unmercifully at their friends. Then with a quick motion of Ino's hand Tenten started throwing pillows as well. Once they were finished they gave Hinata the signal and she began her attack as well.

By the time it was over it looked like a war had taken place in the once clean living room that was now littered with feathers and pillows.

Everyone came out of their hiding positions and started to help clean up. Ino walked over towards where Kenji was and started to help him clean up the mess of feathers. She got on her knees and started to put the feathers in a pile. She looked up at Kenji and tried to fight off the urge to laugh.

She couldn't take it any more and busted out laughing rolling around on the floor. Her friends looked at her. "Kaori what's so funny."

"HAHAHA! He hahahaha! Is hahahahaha!"

They looked over to Kenji and soon had joined Ino. Ryo and Takeo soon joined them as well. Katsuo and Hiroki had gone out side to get rid of the remains of the pillows and walked in. The first thing they saw was everybody but Kenji on the ground laughing. They turned their attention to Kenji and Katsuo also joined the group while Hiroki stood there with a smile on his face chuckling.

Kenji wass now pissed. "What the hell is so funny?!"

Hiroki smiled and replied. "Go look in the mirror."

He walked over to the mirror in the hallway to see what he had meant.

3 2 1

"Why the hell do I look like a freakin chicken?!"

He stormed back into the room with feathers clinging to him. Everyone had stopped laughing after he walked out but were now cracking up again at his remark and reaction. Ino got an idea. She stood up and started doing the chicken dance. Soon every one had joined in including Hiroki. (A/N lol, I was talking to my friends and my friend brought up the old guy dancing in the cedar point commercial.)

Tenten recovered from her laughing fit. "Okay now that we've cleaned up everything, well, at least almost everything." She motioned over to Kenji. "What should we do now?"

Kay this chappie I know was shorter than usual. I usually type 8 or more pages but this one is only 7. Please review and give me some crazy ideas of what they should do and if u say truth or dare give me some ideas of what they should be and for who!!!

Pinkcherryblossom225


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